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Australian Govt Drops Microsoft Office Standard, Opts for ODF

In a move which appears to reverse its previous approach based on
Microsoft’s file formats, the Australian Government’s central IT
decision-making agency appears to have decided that it will standardise
its office documents on the Open Document Format going forward. . . .

Sheridan added: “Support for ODF is available from a wide range of
office productivity suites across a variety of operating system
platforms, in both open-source and proprietary implementations, allowing
agencies a great deal of flexibility in selecting a product which
conforms to the COE Policy standard. Standardising on a format supported
by a wide range of office suites provides for the greatest possible
degree of interoperability without mandating the use of a specific
product, as well as providing the best basis for reliable interchange of
information between agencies deploying differing office productivity
suites.”

ODF is an Open Document Format, originally developed by Sun Microsystems for the Open Office suite of programs.